Midnight Dreary
by Forrestib
Summary: Anna wanders through the castle at midnight. She's about to be alone for a whole week for the first time since the eternal winter. She starts falling into some old habits.


Author's Notes:

The story takes place about 6 months after the events of the movie. Anna and Kristoff are happily together in a stable relationship. Elsa is single and completely fine that way. Hans is imprisoned in his home country for almost starting a war with a neighboring country by trying to usurp the rightful monarch. (Yes, I know this universe is boring compared to most fanfics but I don't really plan on needing to continue this story unless I get requests to do so.)

I have no idea what I was going for here so I apologize if it might seem a bit scattered.

Feedback is much appreciated and does wonders towards keeping me writing more, even if all you have to say is that it stinks. ( =

I reference another fan fiction in this. "the tragedy of Rissa and Loki" is based off of a crossover story called "The Girl Who Knew Too Much" by "the real narnia".

There's a hidden, darker ending hidden in this story for those who want to find it. If you want a happy ending then just don't look for it and you won't even notice it. The story makes sense either way.

* * *

Anna walked through the halls of the castle at midnight. It had been just over 6 months since the induced winter her sister had unknowingly brought upon their kingdom. Elsa would be leaving the next day to demonstrate her abilities to a conference of royalty from a great number of neighboring kingdoms. Kristoff and Sven were away on a family trip to celebrate Kristoff's new godson, Dwayne, being born. The trolls were throwing some huge party under a mountain owned by Kristoff's adoptive great uncle, Pebbald. Apparently he was somewhat of a troll supremacist and didn't want any "pink-skinned tree-killing monkeys" at the party. Apparently Kristoff didn't count since he had been raised by trolls for most of his life. Olaf was gone too. He was off visiting Marshmallow at the ice palace on the northern mountain. That left Anna alone in the castle for almost a week. Just like old times again.

She found herself wandering towards her old default hangout spots. She saluted to a suit of armor she walked past on her way to the library. Once she reached the library she frowned. She realized that she really didn't feel like reading anything. Next she tried the gardens. They were beautiful in the moonlight but gave very little solace from her feared isolation. The music room would have kept her busy for longer if she had played more than two instruments. As is she ran out of songs to play and was left pretend swordfighting with her viola bow. The armory was locked as usual and the kitchens wouldn't open for another few hours. All was quiet in the clocktower. She set off for the gallery where she had spent so many months of her childhood. Once she got there she looked around at the paintings of various monarchs on the walls. Each one she had given its own personality and history totally separate from the actual historical figures they represented. These had been her friends when she had none.

She waved at them in greeting "Hey guys, hi Henry, hi Isabella, hi Richard. I know it's been a while, sorry about that. There's good news though, Elsa came out of her room! Turns out she's got crazy ice powers and was worried about freezing me solid all those years. Anyway I got engaged and then she froze the kingdom and then I talked to her for a bit and then she killed me but then I came back and punched my fiance who was behind the whole thing all along and then I met a new guy and we've been dating for a while now. But they're all gone now. It's just us again. Yay."

"Anna?"

Anna spun around and saw her sister standing in the door of the gallery. Elsa walked up to her with a look of apology that wasn't allowed beyond her eyebrows. She spoke softly "You know I'm only going to be away for a week. I'll never abandon you like that again. Do you hear me? Never."

Anna looked at the floor guiltily "I know. I'm sorry. Sometimes it's just hard to imagine having to go back."

Elsa grew a stern edge to her voice "Then don't! You will never have to go back. As long as I live you will never have to be alone again if you don't want to be. I'm only gone for a week and then we can get the chef to make chocolate ice cream and call in a theatre troup to put on your favorite show, ok?"

Anna laughed "I appreciate that. Thank you. And I'll be fine. Joan can keep me company!" She pointed to the portrait of Joan of Arc on the wall next to them.

Elsa gave a bittersweet smile.

Anna asked her sister in a playfully accusatory tone "Aren't you supposed to be resting before your big conference trip tomorrow morning?"

Elsa covered her mouth as she laughed "I couldn't sleep. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the demonstration. I have to show them what I can do while also making it clear that I'm not a threat to any of them."

Anna whistled "Tall order."

Elsa laughed again "Believe me, I know."

They shared a laugh for a moment before the room returned to silence.

The sisters walked over to a grouping of romantically themed paintings. Anna looked at them and remembered her fantasies the day she met Hans. What she had imagined was so close to what had happened. And yet she could have never dreamed how wrong it had gone.

She looked at a painting of a man with a long and pointed nose reading poetry to a woman in a tower. The woman could only hear his words and knew not by whom they were spoken. The man was bringing nothing but deception to his so-called "true love". She looked over at a painting of a man in a horned helmet saying his final goodbyes to the image of his life long love as she died on the battlefield after five years of endless conflict against her sister. The tragedy of Rissa and Loki had always been one of her favorite legends, even if it wasn't widely accepted. Now all she could think about it was how even the god of deception himself was more honest with his love than Hans had been with her.

She commented to her sister "Let's get out of here. I'm not sure I can stand to look at these anymore after what happened with Hans."

Elsa looked at her "What do you mean?"

Anna looked as if she had a weight on her shoulders "Right before I met Hans, on coronation day, I was daydreaming about meeting someone at the celebration. I imagined a handsome prince sweeping me off of my feet. And then he came. He seemed exactly like I had imagined he would. Now whenever I look at these paintings all I see is his stupid teeth grinning back at me."

Elsa nodded for a moment. She waited a minute or so before asking "What about Kristoff?"

Anna looked at her sister confusedly "What about him?"

Elsa gestured towards the paintings "You met him on that same day. He may not be a prince but he's handsome enough. Couldn't your fantasy have been about him?"

Anna shook her head "No, not really. I never expected Krissy to be the one. I was always expecting some suave prince from an exotic land. Kris is a mountain man who was raised by trolls, not exactly a suave prince from an exotic land. I always imagined the prince smelling better than Krissy anyway."

Elsa laughed "maybe smelling like reindeer is just the price of true love."

Anna laughed "I hope not! Kris would probably start smelling better if he'd just move into the castle like I've been telling him to. Then he'd be taking regular baths and have easy access to soap."

Elsa giggled for a moment before turning back to the painting they were examining. They remained in silent thought for a few seconds before Elsa responded "But if it weren't for Hans you would have never met Kristoff."

Anna looked at her with a silent request to explain.

Elsa looked back at her "The only reason you met Kristoff was because you were headed to the north mountain. You only went there because I ran away and I ran away because of your engagement to Hans. Like it or not but you owe it to Hans that anything changed in your life. Otherwise I would have kept my secret to the grave and you would have never had me or Kristoff to keep you company. Maybe you should look at these paintings as a lesson. Love was so different from what you expected it to be and you would have never realised how great life could be if you had always been striving for the wrong happily ever after, if a slightly better smelling one."

Anna stood in thought for several minutes. Elsa saw a tear run down her sister's cheek. Anna rubbed it off with her sleeve "You're right."

She looked at the portraits of women being wooed and courted and saw them for the paradies that they were. None of them captured the image of love as she knew it. They were unrealistic and juvenile dreams of things that could never really be. The love on the canvas was genuine, but it wasn't hers. Her love was far stranger and more honest than the ones she saw the artists capture. In that moment she knew that she did truly love Kristoff. She knew it to the core of her being and she knew that it was genuine. If Kristoff didn't propose to her first she'd propose to him if she had to. If that was against the rules she'd get Elsa to change them. She was going to spend the rest of her life with that man.

She let the tears fall as she turned to her sister "Thank you. And I know you'd never abandon me again. I have a feeling none of us are ever going to have to worry about being alone again for a very long time."

Elsa raised her eyebrows questioningly "Not forever?"

Anna shook her head "Not forever. I have no illusions of immortality after almost accidentally turning into a human popsicle. Totally not your fault by the way. Anyway, eventually we'll all die except one and then that last one of us will be alone. But hopefully we won't have to worry about that for a good long while."

Elsa looked at her sister and thought about how much she had grown in the last few months. She turned towards the door "well I should go see about getting some sleep before the ship leaves tomorrow. I'll see you in a week, ok?"

Anna smiled "Yeah, definitely."

Elsa was smothered in a hug from her sister.

Anna muttered in her ear "I love you."

Elsa hugged her sister tightly for a second before pulling away with her hands on Anna's shoulders "I love you too." She walked over to the door and turned back at the last second "Goodbye Anna." She jokingly waved to the portrait on the wall "Goodbye Joan." She turned back to Anna and said one last thing before she closed the gallery door "I think you'll be just fine. I'll see you in a week."

After the door closed Anna turned back to the painting on the wall in front of her. The gallery suddenly wasn't seeming quite so appealing to her anymore. She felt that she was in the mood for a good book. Perhaps the library should be her next stop. She looked at the grandfather clock across the room that now had the hour and minute hands roughly coexistent towards the far right notch on the clock. She instinctually started vocally ticking along with the swinging of the pendulum.

Roughly an hour later she got back to her room with a copy of "The Starfighters of Adumar". She curled under the covers and started to read about legends of long ago and far away. That night she dreamed of sailing through the stars. She sailed to the second star on the right and had adventures beyond any semblance of reality. She fought Balrogs and Jabberwockys. She killed legendary vampires and ancient evil gods. She encountered a fellow traveller with a box that was bigger on the inside. She helped a boy with an arrow tattoo bring balance to a world full of magic like Elsa's. But in all her travels there was one thing she never ever did. She never met a prince, she was never rescued, and most of all, she was never ever swept off her feet. She had no need to fall in love on her adventures. She knew the truth about love. Because she was already in it.


End file.
